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Monthly Archives: October 2012

It’s been a really busy autumn already in terms of cons, shows, expos, launches and the like. Since I haven’t been as acutely aware of it in previous years, I don’t know how this compares with other stats, but hearing things like “record sales”, “record numbers” etc suggests to me that 2012 has been a very big year for comics. I bit the bullet and tried to hit all the major events within driving range. It was a gaunlet that shuttled me between superhero cosplay and indie night-before stapling fests. I didn’t really have too much time to process what I was seeing, but I was trying to write about it on the fly. I just tried to stick to the facts and hold on for the ride.

But when my journalistic articles started coming out, I was making gaffs. Pretty embarassing ones. Sometimes I’d manage to get through one article without some mistake that showed how new I was to comics, and particularly to comics culture. Sometimes reading several collected volumes of your favorite author doesn’t exactly make you well rounded when it comes to mainstream issues and indie angst. I got a little despondent about it, even though these days you can fix mistakes with the stroke of a key and problem solved. I wondered if I just wasn’t ready to be writing about comics on a scale that really demands a degree of expertise. Maybe enthusiasm wasn’t enough.

I ended up talking to friends about it, of course, and pretty much assuming they’d agree with me, that I ought to back off for awhile. They knew a hell of a lot more than me and more often than not were providing the corrections when I needed them. But their answers were more or less even worse than telling me to call it a day. They suggested I tell everyone that I was new to comics and didn’t always know what I was looking at. In especially ungracious fashion, I got angry with them and told them off. Didn’t they know that would ruin my chances of ever being taken seriously by readers, much less by sites that might let me write for them? Suicide. A couple of days went by. It was one of those awful, good ideas that sticks in the back of your mind. It was like a dare, or maybe looking over a cliff and feeling that vertigo. I told myself I’d do it, but not publish these confessional articles. Well, you get how it turned out. I did it. I thanked them. They were right.

So, here for your perusal, check out the first article I did in this autobio vein pondering the superhero and cosplay aspects of Baltimore Comic Con that I took for granted until I looked more closely at a world I thought I knew:

That one was scary enough to write, but honestly, the indie article was harder. That was the real plunge, because I hadn’t even seen an indie comic before spring of 2012 and here I was trying to write about MoCCA Fest and SPX as if I could process the wild world I was being introduced to. But it was maybe the most satisfying writing experience I’ve had yet because it was such an honest wrangling with my impressions. Here you can find:

A big thanks to Dean Haspiel and Seth Kushner at TRIP CITY who allowed me to air my laundry on these issues, proofread and gave suggestions about them, and particularly to Seth who arranged the images beautifully, as always. I also learned something about TRIP CITY doing this, by the way: they value earnestness. Add to that a serious respect for the hard work that goes into comics and all the arts. Just a few more reasons why I’m glad to be a part of a fantastic collective like this.

Asbury Comic Con is the brain-child of independent comics guy Cliff Galbraith, who has been a long-time creator of RAT BASTARD, UNBEARABLE, and other comics, and has recently launched RAT BASTARD as an app for reading at NYCC 2012. He got tired of the big companies shouldering out smaller ones and indie creators at comic cons and had another plan in mind. He took over the Asbury Lanes bowling alley and music venue in Asbury Park, NJ, for the first time last spring with plenty of help from enthusiastic friends. The event was small, but had a remarkable vibe and attracted like-minded comics people. This second con, held September 29th built on that success and then some. With more tables, more comics artists and writers, and great food, it kicked ass.

Everyone involved had a great time, including TRIP CITY’s Dean Haspiel and Seth Kushner, who were there selling minis and books, and friends of TC George O’Connor of InkdTV and artist Reilly Brown. Add to that plenty of other comics stalwarts with a strong indie streak like Larry Hama and Evan Dorkin.

I was there for The Beat with several other Beat writers, and we had a blast. Part of the fun was digging around in long boxes and finding the most unlikely stuff. I ended up with some BEOWULF and Batman Annuals. Torsten Adair hit a goldmine of the bizarre and wrote it all up for The Beat as “Fool’s Gold” installments 1 and 2.

Attendees were into it and there were kids in costume this time, too. You never know what’s missing from an environment until you add kids having a good time with their parents, then you know a con has arrived. I also found some great old 8 Ball comics by Daniel Clowes, something I’d been hunting for, and Marvel graphic novels from the 1990’s. I have an obsessive collection of those- beautiful artwork! This time I got Daredevil by Bill Sienkiewicz and Frank Miller.

Some other indie friends enjoying the day and keeping tables busy were Dre Grigoropol and Sean Pryor. Sean’s a local and was looking forward the opening of an art show featuring his work. He also teaches art classes in the area.

After the con was just as much fun as the con itself. We headed down to the boardwalk after finding a restaurant too loud and uncongenial, led by Cliff Galbraith. We decided on hanging out in the warm weather under a dramatic moon/cloudscape and eating some really to die for Korean tacos. Here George O’Connor checks out the Batmobile.

Everyone broke out their cameras after nightfall to see if we could get any pictures of the moon, sea, and sand, and to our surprise, the pictures were excellent. It really set the tone for the whole con that lots of comics people got a chance to hang out and talk together about the history of comics and current work. Asbury Con was about similar goals and a desire to impact the community through comics. Big thanks to Cliff Galbraith for having this vision, and putting in all the energy to make it happen. Here’s to more years of Asbury Con. It’ll be moving to the convention hall next time due to its impressive successes, but for those of us who came to the Lanes, they’ll always have a special place in our experience of a new kind of con.

For my full coverage of the Asbury Park Comic Con for The Beat, please click here.

This year I attended my first Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland, in what seemed like only a couple of days after the phenomenal Boston Comic Con. I drove down a little ahead of the Expo in order to attend Dean Haspiel’s talk at the Library of Congress, celebrating the donation of over 600 minicomics from his personal collection to the Library, but also the ongoing collection that will house Ignatz Award nominated comics and other worthies drawn from SPX each year. It was a proud day for comics, and plenty of other comics folks turned up for a tour of the impressive comics holdings the Library already had on offer. If you’d like to see my coverage of that event for The Beat, you can find it here.

After returning to the hotel for a spell, some of us headed back into DC for the Literary Death Match event featuring Dean Haspiel and the Beat’s Heidi MacDonald as judges. It was a hilarious event hosted in pro fashion with a whole cast of talented cartoonists competing through wits and art.

When SPX finally opened the next morning, the crowds were impressive and I realized right away how special the Expo was. I’m new to indie comics, and this was a premier festival for creators and fans of the self-published, off-the-beaten path and even hand-made in comics. I was overwhelmed by the well of creativity I saw there, and tried to pick up a wide selection of minis produced in different ways. I talked to lots of creators, hearing their stories and motivations in the creative process, but I also saw the way in which everyone enjoyed seeing and talking to each other in an environment in which their efforts were understood. Add to that the all-star cast of famous names attending SPX this year from Daniel Clowes to the Hernandez Brothers and Chris Ware. It made for an ebullient atmosphere. It wouldn’t be far fetched to call the event one big comics party, but a party where people made record sales from interested attendees. This really signals a rise in popularity and recognition for indie comics.

I spent a lot of my time attending fabulous panels, hearing straight from veteran comics people about their careers and the future of the form, and covered lots of them for The Beat. You can see my day one coverage and day two coverage with pictures if you’re interested.

I also covered the entertaining Ignatz Awards which was one of the most up-beat ceremonies I’ve ever witnessed, not to mention the sprawling late into the night parties that followed. It left me broken down by Sunday morning, but ready for more knowledge. A full day of panels (reinforced by a great cooked breakfast) kept me on the move.

Driving back, my mind was literally still spinning with all the wit and wisdom I’d been a party too. As Warren Bernard said to me, it would be very very hard to top SPX this year, and as people started responding to the event online, it was clear that everyone had just as good a time as me. It was a crowded, lively, welcoming Expo, bringing in new readership and talent. I’d highly recommend people interested in comics attend in future years, whatever genre you’re into. It’s increasingly evident to me that comics is actually a fairly small world and if you want to hang out with like minded people, SPX is a premier place to do just that. Two thumbs up!